Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to the Windows 2000 Family of Operating Systems. These updates are a collection of fixes in the following areas: operating system reliability, application compatibility, setup, and security issues. This service pack includes fully regression-tested versions of the patches for all security vulnerabilities that had been discovered in Windows 2000 up to the closing date of Service Pack development. The following Microsoft Security Bulletins are included in Service Pack 3.

Security patches for issues affecting Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 2 have been included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. Specifically, IE 5.01 Service Pack 2 patches referenced in the following security bulletins are included in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3:

MS01-051(306121)
- Malformed Dotless IP Address Can Cause a Web Page to Be Handled in the Intranet Zone